When a friend is coming to town and says “We should go XC schooling!” it’s really not much of a decision. Especially when the destination is my favorite place for XC… Pine Hill. So much like XC school #1, this one was pretty last minute and unplanned, but that didn’t make it any less fun.

We started out jumping the BN fences but after a few they just felt pretty unchallenging, so I switched over to the Novice course. Henry is a rockstar. I’m really just kind of blown away with how good he is about XC. Never would have expected it from this horse, honestly… he’s not what you would normally imagine an eventer to be. But he just seems to really love it and is so willing.

And stills, for those who don’t want to watch video. 😉

 

For reals. Where did this pony come from and how is he so amazing?

Ok, drunken is probably too strong of a word but let me set the stage for you here.

It was Saturday evening. I’d had a great day at the horse show, came home to find a pretty amazing offer from a custom coat company in my messages, had set up a badass lunch/dinner (linner? lupper? dunch?) of cheese and crackers and fruit and pepper jelly and trail mix, and my SO had brought home a new limited edition ice cream flavor that I’d been trying to find for a month. You could say I was riding high on life. Add in a couple of Angry Orchards, give me a computer, put me on ebay, and well… I can’t really be blamed for what occurred thereafter.

So there I was, contemplating how the day had gone and how Henry really seemed to just click with all of this. I thought maybe we could actually give this eventing thing a little bit of a go. And I thought of how annoying it was to try to ride the dressage test in my very very forward CWD… it’s just not built for that. So off I went perusing the internet browsing saddles, just kinda getting an idea of what might work and how much I was really looking at having to spend to find something decent and suitable. There was zero intention here of buying anything, mostly just thinking ahead and figuring maybe later in the winter or in the spring.

Then I stumbled across a Frank Baines Capriole. When I evented back in the day I distinctly remember sitting in a FB Capriole a few times and loving it. This one was made around that time and also looked like a promising fit for Henry. So, with my cider in one hand, giggling to myself, I made a super lowball offer that I never in a million years thought they would take. I went to bed thinking about how indignant that poor person would probably be when they saw my offer.

Guess what was waiting for me in my email the next morning? “Congratulations, you bought this item!” WHAT? Really?!?!?! I’m ok with it because I feel like I got a fantastic deal, but it was definitely unexpected. Everyone say hello to Frank. Frank Baines.

Not long after the initial shock/excitement wore off I realized I have absolutely no accessories for this thing. No girth, no extra leathers, no extra stirrups, no pads to fit it, and no black bridles. Guess what I did for most of the day on Sunday?

The girth and stirrups were pretty easy to nab for cheap from a quick cruise through ETT on facebook. Since this was an unplanned purchase I’m trying to keep everything as cheap as possible without actually being gross or heinous, which is hard for a picky person. My plan is to start with this stuff and if I actually keep doing this and like it, I’ll upgrade next year. Finding a bridle proved much tougher. I had a pretty low price point in mind but I’m really really picky about bridles and I hate web reins. Why do most dressage bridles come with those awful things? Then yesterday morning I was perusing eBay again (not intoxicated this time) and found a bridle and bridle parts lot. I again made an offer and again – it was accepted. Score! So now I have these goodies headed my way. I figure I’ll pick and choose which stuff to keep and sell off the rest.

I still have to buy leathers and a pad, although I think I’ve decided on which pad I want. I didn’t really realize quite what I was getting into here when I gleefully pushed that “Make Offer” button, did I?

There’s a lesson to be learned here: don’t drink and eBay. But if you do, make sure you’re getting a rockin good deal.

 

This post is part 2 of our weekend show adventure. In yesterday’s part 1 I covered our eventing derby. Originally I had entered both the BN eventing derby and the hunter derby. I really considered the hunter derby my back up plan, in case the eventing derby was a disaster or if I just felt like he needed to get in the ring again. However on Friday a friend of mine from the barn, Kristina, decided along with our trainer that her horse wasn’t quite ready to go to the show. She had only signed up for an Intro dressage test, so I offered to let her ride Henry for it instead if she wanted to. Her horse is kind of tough and I know she has felt frustrated lately. I think most of us can understand how demoralizing tough/green horses can be sometimes, and I figured she deserved to still be able to horse show and have a good time. So she hopped on Henry on Friday evening to see if he would work for her and they seemed to get along just fine. As long as you’re light with your hands and leg he’s a pretty simple horse, and I trusted him to be well behaved enough for her.

So I scratched the hunter derby and we switched her dressage entry over to my horse. About half an hour before her test we tacked him up with her dressage saddle, tossed her on, and off she went. She too opted for a very basic short warm up since space was so limited, and she mainly just walked around with a little bit of trotting until it was time for her test.

I don’t have pictures but I did take video… however not sure if she’d be comfortable with me sharing it here so you get stills instead. They went in and she did a really good job, especially considering she’d only ridden him once before and for about 10 minutes! He was a little bit too keen after the first halt and picked up a canter step, but once she got a couple movements into the test they both seemed to take a deep breath and settle in. They ended up with a 61% which was good enough for 3^rd! She seemed very happy with him and said she had a blast, so I was delighted. I get a lot of joy out of seeing my horse bring someone else a little bit of happiness. I offered to let her take lessons on him sometimes and take him to more dressage shows at Intro and Training level if she wants to. I think he’s a great horse to get her confidence built back up and have a little bit of fun on, to offer some relief from her tougher greener horse. And it’s good for him to be ridden by someone else sometimes anyway.

After we were done and back at the trailer (and Henry’d had about two dozen cookies) some other mutual friends of ours, a husband and wife, came up to chat. In addition to riding, the husband has a real penchant for in-hand work and the little versatility trail course that was set up at the show was too much for him to resist. I handed Henry over and let them go play around over the trail obstacles. By this point Henry was giving me the eye like “What is this, musical pony?” but he gamely went through the weave poles, the tightly stacked hay bales, the cross of poles on the ground, the curtain of garden hoses, the teeter totter, and the pool noodles. This horse is just too much.

By the time he was back at the trailer again Henry was feeling like he was tired of amusing us and ready to go home for his nap, so we settled our bills, grabbed our ribbons, and headed home. He was just such a superstar from start to finish and did every single thing we asked of him, no matter how silly. He might not be super fancy or super athletic or super flashy but this boy is worth his weight in gold. You just can’t beat that brain.

Tomorrow we’ll talk about the thing I bought on Saturday night, and all the other little things I’ve subsequently had to buy because of it…

This will be post 1 of 2 about this show, since there’s a lot to say. Today we’ll cover my part of the show, the eventing derby! (all the pretty, non-grainy, non-cell phone pictures in this post are courtesy of Lauren at She Moved to Texas)

You could say it went really well. This was a lot of firsts for Henry… first time going to a show by himself, first time showing him without a trainer present, first time showing out of the trailer, first time showing over jumps he hadn’t schooled over first, first time in a dressage ring, etc. Shoot, we’ve had ONE dressage lesson ever and ONE cross country school ever. I was a little nervous about how it’d go since I was asking a lot of him all at once. I slept very little on Friday night, going over everything in my head.

When we got there and started getting him ready I was a little concerned someone was going to think we’d drugged him. He was chewing his hay with his eyes closed while other horses lunged nearby. I had to jump up and down and wave my arms at him to get this picture.

I got on for dressage (my division went first and I was second in the order) and immediately knew that I had a little bit of a sluggish horse. There really wasn’t a good place to warm up though, and I figured that a too-quiet test was a lot better than a too-zoomy test, so we just walked and trotted and did a little lateral work. At one point I looked over and noticed that there was a horse that refused to go near the bright red tent that the judge was going to be sitting under. I walked over with Henry and offered her a lead, and Henry (who never even gave the tent so much as a look) led them back and forth past it a few times. After a few more minutes of walking around I wandered back over to the ring, where the judge and scribe were waiting on the first person. I told them that I didn’t think she realized they were ready for her, and they asked me if I was ready to go instead. Um… not totally, but sure why not?

So we trotted in to do our test. The first trip down centerline was great and we got an 8! I remembered my notes from my dressage lesson last week. 😉 The first trot circle was ok, a little blah (he was still a little tight in his back and not really engaged, since we didn’t have much warm up) and the first canter transition was a few steps late. I think he was still sleeping. I knew I’d get nailed on our free walk, that’s by far his weakest thing and we’ve only been working on it for a couple weeks – got a 5 on that. Ouch, but totally fair. When I started my trot circle to the right the judge blew the whistle as if I’d made an error. I was super confused because I knew the test forward and backward, so I walked over and sure enough she said I was wrong. After a few minutes of discussion between me, the judge, and another trainer nearby we realized that the judge had been given the wrong score sheets – she had the 2010 BN Test A, not the 2014. So after a little revision to her sheet she allowed me to start again from the movement where she’d blown the whistle. Of course, the whole time we were talking Henry stood there sleeping, so having to start again in the middle of the test wasn’t super ideal. Still he finished ok, no real bobbles but no real brilliance either. I was definitely playing it safe and just trying to get a good relaxed first dressage test. I thought that her scoring and comments were exactly on par with my impressions as I rode it, so I was satisfied with our score of 35. We survived, and we didn’t do that bad!

Once THAT mess was over (sorry dressage, I still hate you) we tossed on his breastplate, put on his boots, I put on my vest and spurs, and off we went to warm up for the jumping. Again, warm up space was limited so I just hopped him over a couple jumps then galloped him up and back a little space in the field to get him awake and out in front of my leg.

I thought the course looked pretty simple and forgiving. There were 7 jumps in the ring, then we went out the gate and into the field for 7 more XC fences. I knew the jumps in the ring would be fine as long as I sat up and got a good pace, especially since they were set on the low side. Henry’s no longer impressed by little jumps, no matter how bright or flowery. I did have a couple of concerns about XC though… the jumps were plenty small enough, but would he be balky at the first one since we were leaving all the other horses and going straight toward a busy road? There was also a little bank up, with 4 or 5 strides (depending on how you came into it) to a brush box that was on the skinny side. I knew accuracy and straightness were going to be important. After the brush box was a little ditch, and he’s been known to give those a good peek. So I just kept thinking – sit up, get him up and out in front of me, and just keep going forward.

Turns out I didn’t need to worry. We went in the ring, he picked up a nice forward uphill canter, and just ATE that course for lunch.

Then we left the ring and I pushed him into a bit of a gallop. I figured it was better to override the first one than underride, and then I could gauge how he felt and adjust my ride from there.

He never even blinked at anything. He just kept one ear on me saying “Ok, which one next???” and kept looking for the next jump. When we had to go past a couple of the lower level fences he actually tried to veer TOWARD them. I kind of couldn’t believe how bold and confident and professional he was. Later one of the other riders asked me how long he’d been eventing. Ha! He bopped right over the tires, down the hill to the little upright logs, through the dip to the pile of telephone poles (which was down by the busy road and I think every other horse in our division had at least one stop there). My plan was to trot the up bank but as soon as I turned toward it he locked on and picked up a nice polite canter so I just let him roll. Before we were even all the way up it he locked onto the brush box and took me right to it, then around the corner to the ditch (which he still cleared by many feet, but never hesitated at) and out of the field over the last tire jump. Totally clear with zero issues!

And well, like I said, everyone else had stops so guess what?

What a great first experience for him. This little show was the perfect confidence builder and perfect first intro to eventing – he exceeded all my expectations. Can’t wait for the next one. Hello dark side!

I also purchased a little something on Saturday night when I was basking in a post horse show high and had a couple ciders…

Just gonna leave this here and walk away and not tell y’all the full story until Monday, because I’m a tease like that.